Murray cruises into quarters

Andy Murray moved into the quarter finals of the Rakuten Japan Open with a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 victory over Lukas Lacko today.

It proved to be a lot more straightforward than his opening match, with Murray breezing into the last eight in just 57 minutes for the loss of just three games. The Brit didn’t get broken once and faced only a single break point all match, courtesy of a couple of double faults.

In the first set Murray raced into a 5-0 lead, dropping just the two points. Lacko put up a small fight toward the end of the set – holding serve and earning a break point on the Murray serve – but he couldn’t prevent the breadstick and the defending champion was looking in complete control.

The Slovak put up a bit more of a challenge early doors in the second set, but he never really looked like causing the world number three any problems. Murray broke once in the third game and again in the seventh, before comfortably serving it out to book his place in the last eight without having dropped serve once.

The British number one will face the seventh seed Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter finals, after the Swiss player saw off Jeremy Chardy in a two and a half hour thriller involving two tie-breaks. This will be the 12th meeting between the two, with Murray leading the head-to-head 7-4, including a straight sets win at the Olympics earlier this year. The match will be played on Friday.

Murray is also in action in the doubles on Thursday, where will he feature alongside brother Jamie as they look to defend their title. They face Jamie's old doubles partner Eric Butorac and Jarkko Nieminen in round one.

Well done Andy! Hoping for similar results like last years Asian swing. Nice interview with Andy in todays i newspaper. Still got his feet firmly planted on the ground!! Says it still has not hit him about winning the U.S open.I still have to pinch myself when i think about the summer he has had & will never tire of U.S open champion. Well until the A.O

That was good reading, thanks Ruthie. Thanks also to TMH, for another sight unseen, as it were, article. Great stuff.

During the coverage today they briefly showed the match points from Andy's two matches, and mentioned the doubles. They also raved about how Andy played in the final against Nadal last year, showing some of it. I think I might want that match lol.